Recollections of the Private Life of Napoleon — Complete eBook

Certainly a truer and fuller light is cast by these
volumes, upon the colossal figure which will always
remain one of the most interesting studies in all
human history.

Thetranslator.

INTRODUCTION.

By Constant.

The career of a man compelled to make his own way,
who is not an artisan or in some trade, does not usually
begin till he is about twenty years of age. Till
then he vegetates, uncertain of his future, neither
having, nor being able to have, any well-defined purpose.
It is only when he has arrived at the full development
of his powers, and his character and bent of mind
are shown, that he can determine his profession or
calling. Not till then does he know himself,
and see his way open before him. In fact, it
is only then that he begins to live.

Reasoning in this manner, my life from my twentieth
year has been thirty years, which can be divided into
equal parts, so far as days and months are counted,
but very unequal parts, considering the events which
transpired in each of those two periods of my life.

Attached to the person of the Emperor Napoleon for
fifteen years, I have seen all the men, and witnessed
all the important events, which centered around him.
I have seen far more than that; for I have had under
my eyes all the circumstances of his life, the least
as well as the greatest, the most secret as well as
those which are known to history,—­I have
had, I repeat, incessantly under my eyes the man whose
name, solitary and alone, fills the most glorious
pages of our history. Fifteen years I followed
him in his travels and his campaigns, was at his court,
and saw him in the privacy of his family. Whatever
step he wished to take, whatever order he gave, it
was necessarily very difficult for the Emperor not
to admit me, even though involuntarily, into his confidence;
so that without desiring it, I have more than once
found myself in the possession of secrets I should
have preferred not to know. What wonderful things
happened during those fifteen years! Those near
the Emperor lived as if in the center of a whirlwind;
and so quick was the succession of overwhelming events,
that one felt dazed, as it were, and if he wished to
pause and fix his attention for a moment, there instantly
came, like another flood, a succession of events which
carried him along with them without giving him time
to fix his thoughts.

Succeeding these times of activity which made one’s
brain whirl, there came to me the most absolute repose
in an isolated retreat where I passed another interval
of fifteen years after leaving the Emperor. But
what a contrast! To those who have lived, like
myself, amid the conquests and wonders of the Empire,
what is left to-day? If the strength of our manhood
was passed amid the bustle of years so short, yet so
fully occupied, our careers were sufficiently long
and fruitful, and it is time to give ourselves up
to repose. We can withdraw from the world, and
close our eyes. Can it be possible to see anything
equal to what we have seen? Such scenes do not
come twice in the lifetime of any man; and having
seen them, they suffice to occupy his memory through
all his remaining years, and in retirement he can
find nothing better to occupy his leisure moments
than the recollections of what he has witnessed.